SALTWATER FISHING REPORTS
Vancouver Saltwater Salmon Fishing Report
The fishing locally definitely picked up this week. If you read last weeks report you will remember we talked about the new moon and big tides. That has passed and this weeks tides were not as severe and the bite came back on.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the Fraser as we are getting a lot of calls about the dirty water form the Fraser plume. Many anglers are assuming you can’t or won’t catch fish in these conditions. This is not true at all, I was out in the dirty water yesterday off Gabriola and we were well into the double digits for hook ups. This dirty fresh water floats on top and underneath the fish can still see. It often brings the bait and the fish up. The hot depth in the morning yesterday was 101 on the rigger and 137 a little later on in the day. If the water was clear we would have been fishing 175 to 225. So don’t worry about the dirty water, it is actually normal for this time of year, just adjust your depths accordingly. I think more people are noticing it this year as we have had some 1 in 100 year flood events and all that water is making its way into the Fraser and now into the Salish Sea.
Okay, back to fishing. Locally it was decent this past week with fish off Cowan to Roger Curtis and the Hump. Productive depths have been 80-120 for the most part. If you didn’t see my leader boards on Instagram or Facebook last week, here you go, this is what we are using.
Over in the Gulf Islands the fishing also picked up once the big tides and long weekend crowds dispersed. We had some awesome days there this week. A lot of anglers got tricked into fishing the structure this past week, perhaps a little too early, and the fishing offshore was very good. There are also fish on the structure, so it is a tough call, but there were some big number days from Nanaimo down to south Gabriola in 350-800 feet of water. Spoons and hootchies in the above picture with green and chartreuse glow flashers were hot. Think Lemon Lime, Salty Dawg, Green Onion Glow, etc.
Crabbing is decent but there has been a lot of traps stolen lately, so keep an eye on your gear. Commercial prawn season is open, so we aren’t setting our traps at the moment.
See you in the shop and on the water,
Jason Tonelli